In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 782,129 filed Sept. 30, 1985, which is incorporated herein by reference, there are described certain organic compounds of tellurium and selenium which are active in vitro and in vivo for the production of cytokines. These compounds are also useful for a number of diseases as set forth in Ser. No. 782,129. One phenomenon of these compounds of tellurium and selenium is the relatively insoluble nature of the compounds in aqueous media which causes difficulty in the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions for parental administration. It has been found by the applicants that certain polycarboxylic acids will form a stable complex with certain organic compounds of tellurium and selenium.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of this invention to provide novel complexes of certain organic compounds of tellurium and selenium with non-toxic complexing agents which have increased water solubility.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a novel pharmaceutical composition which is based on the use of a novel complex of certain compounds of tellurium and selenium with non-toxic complexing agents.
It is also a further object of this invention to provide novel methods for the induction of cytokines using complexes of certain organic compounds of tellurium and selenium with non-toxic complexing agents.